February 20, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Peace is taught a great deal in the Bible, how
to be at peace with each other, how to have
peace with God, and more than one kind of peace
at that. Today on Turning Point, doctor David Jeremiah considers
the various kinds of peace found in God's Word and
why living peacefully is a key to happiness. From how
(00:26):
to be Happy according to Jesus, here's David with his
message happy are the healers.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And the Bible tells us that we are to determine
to be like Jesus, and the Bible says he is
the Prince of Peace. So we're going to learn today
how to be a healer, how peace takes place in
the life of a believer, and what Jesus has to
say about that in his Beatitudes. The study guide for
(00:53):
this series is now available along with a CD package
that gives you all the audio teaching material. I tell
you that because one of the great things that has
happened in the study of the Bible across America has
been the use of the study guides. From turning Point.
We have prepared these study guides with you in mind
to help you interact with the material you hear on
(01:15):
the radio. So these study guides go along with all
the audio material, and many people now are using them
as small group curriculum. What they do is they get
a study guide for every person in their study group,
and then the leader gets the other material, this CD
package and whatever else may be available for that particular series.
(01:37):
He's the person who facilitates the Bible study and manages it.
Each of these study guides have questions for discussion, additional
places for you to look up the scripture and condensed
versions of each lesson that you hear on the radio
every day. There couldn't be a better way for you
to study the Bible in a small group than through
(01:59):
the study guides that we provide. There are many of
them with many subjects. Ask about that one you call
or right, But if you don't have a study guide
for this series, it's time to order it and have
it ready for you to review as we finish up
this series at the end.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Of the month.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now it's time for us to get back to our study.
Here on this Friday edition of Turning Point, Happy are
the healers.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Mankind has been searching for peace since the very beginning,
and the quest for peace among men has often been
illustrated by the architecture of society. For instance, if the
statue of liberty means anything, it means that we are
(02:44):
offering a gesture of peace to those who come to
the harbor and then who come to live within the
borders of our country. In Israel, there is a statue
which is called the Statue of Shalom, and it looks
out over the harbor of Haifa in that war torn
(03:05):
country as a message or at least a picture of
peace in the Middle East. In Tokyo, in front of
the Tokyo Station stands a robust statue with arms outstretched
toward heaven. And underneath the statue in Greek and Japanese
is the word agape love, a testimony to the desire
(03:29):
of the Japanese people for peace between their country and
their neighbors. In almost every part of the world there
is some symbolic representation of humanities quest after peace. Some
countries have gone further than statues. In a country that
(03:49):
I visited, Santa Domingo, there was a burden for world
peace in the heart of a man that was so
great that he caused himself to be nailed to a
cross as a sacrifice for peace in his country. The
man whose name is Patrice Tomao, planned to remain on
(04:10):
the cross for forty eight hours, but he had to
cut it short after twenty hours because of infection that's
set in his body.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
The newspaper in Santa.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Domingo the day after this event read as follows, Crucifixion
for peace falls short. The headline sort of summarizes everything
that has happened in our world in man's attempt to
bring peace to the war torn zones of our culture.
(04:43):
All of it seems to fall short. All of it
seems to fail. None of it ever seems to reach
its desired end. Of course, we know, if we have
studied the scriptures at all, that the problem is not
with nations. The problem is with nature, the nature of man.
The Bible says in James that the reason we war
(05:04):
is because we have a heart problem. The problems in
our heart starts within us. If you could somehow get
rid of selfishness in the heart of man, war would
go away. But wars come out of our own nature,
and they will always be a part of our history
until Jesus returns to set up his peaceful kingdom upon
(05:26):
this earth. There are many today who are searching for
peace individually, and they go about it through tranquilizers and
liquor and drugs. There's a sort of peace, I guess
that you could find in a mental institution, but who
wants that kind? There is a kind of peace that
comes from being brainwashed. Some people don't know what the
(05:47):
real issues are because they have totally been brainwashed from
the issues of life. Sometimes we equate peace with controlled panic.
But peace, according to God's word, is something that is
available to us, and it is something that God wants
us to have. It is quite evident to me that
(06:10):
before we can give it away and be peacemakers, we
have to be possessors of it ourselves. So I want
to talk with you for a few moments about what
the Bible says about peace, and just a very simple
outline so that you will understand what we're talking about here.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The word for.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Peace in the Greek language is the word erine. It
means to join together. It is a picture of two
opposing forces, once separated, now being reconciled.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
And according to.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
The Bible, there are three kinds of peace that we
can have. First of all, there is what the Bible
calls peace with God, and the emphasis is on the
little word with It comes as a surprise to some
today that when we are born into this world, we
are not born into this world at peace with God.
(07:04):
We are born into this world at war with God.
The Bible calls it the old nature, total depravity. And
while we don't hear much about that in our churches
these days, it is the truth. And every honest parent
knows it. They know that our children come screaming out
of the womb wanting their own way, and if you
(07:26):
don't feed them one night, you find out how bad
they want their own way. We are self centered individuals,
and self centeredness is a.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Very core of depravity.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
But the Bible says that it is possible for man
who is estranged from God to be at peace with God.
And the Book of Romans says it this way, that
we who are at enmity with God can be justified
by faith, and then we can have peace with God.
(08:00):
God in heaven looked down as the original peacemaker, and
noticed and knew that we were estranged from him, and
he sent his son into the world, and he went
to the cross, and there he hung between Heaven and
earth and paid the penalty for all of our sin.
And I've always thought the cross was a marvelous picture
of reconciliation, the very structure of it, with one part
(08:22):
of it reaching up toward Heaven from earth and celebrating
this part of our reconciliation. And there Jesus hung his
hands out on the crossbeam as if to say to
all mankind, welcome, you can all come, and he celebrated
for us our reconciliation, so that, as one writer has said, God,
(08:43):
Jesus Christ reached up one hand and took hold of
God the Father, and in his manhood reached down and
took hold another hand and reached down to man.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And he brought man and God together on the cross.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
And everybody who puts their trust in Jesus Christ now
is at peace with God. I've had the privilege over
the years of sharing the Gospel with many people individually,
and as much as I love to preach, there's something
about telling people about Jesus Christ one on one that's
very special, and you can't really equate it with any
other experience. And over and over again is in my
(09:15):
study or in their home We've prayed and they've invited
Christ to come into their life. It's almost a visible effect.
It's a sigh of relief. It's like, oh, the war's over.
I am at peace with God. I hope that today
you can say with assurance, there's one thing I know, Pastor,
I am at peace with God. But if we're honest
(09:39):
and we look out at our world, and especially at
the Christian world, we discover that while we may have
peace with God, there are a lot of Christian people
who don't seem to have the peace of God. There's
a difference between peace with God and the peace of God.
The peace of God is that which God gives to
us through his son Jesus Christ, as a gift that
(10:00):
we experience every day of our life. In John fourteen
twenty seven, Jesus said, speaking to his disciples, peace I
leave with you my peace.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I give unto you. Not as the world gives. Do
I give you. Let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
And Jesus gave that to the disciples because he knew
they were going to be in a state of turmoil
very shortly through his death and his having been taken
away from them. And he said, in the midst of
these very confusing circumstances. I want you to know that
you can have a special kind of peace. That's a
gift from me. If you walk into the bookstores these days,
(10:37):
you discover that there apparently is something wrong, because most
of the titles in the bookstores these days are about
how to fix what's wrong in our Christian life. And
you wonder sometimes, if the Christian life really works, why
is so much always wrong? Why do we have to
keep writing these Christian self help books to get people
back up to where they should be in the first place.
(11:00):
The answer is we are missing our inheritance, and our
inheritance is the peace of God. I hope that if
you have lost the peace of God in your heart,
you will come back and find out what's wrong and
get it back. Psalm four to eight has a wonderful
testimony for all of us who are believers. And I'm
(11:22):
learning more and more about how precious this promise is.
I hope it's your promise. It goes like this, I
will both lay down in peace and sleep for you alone, Lord,
make me dwell in safety. You know, the real test
is can you lay down in peace and sleep? Can
you go out of the militarized zone where you live
your life every day, go back into the confines of
(11:43):
your home, and then in the peace of Jesus Christ,
pillow your head at night and say, you know, the
world's coming on glued out there. But the real thing is,
I have the peace of God in here, and it's
okay sleeping in the peace of Jesus Christ. There's a
third out of peace that I want to talk to
you about, which I've called the peace from God. The
(12:05):
peace with God is when we're saved. The peace of
God is when we begin to realize what our heritage
is in Christ. But there are certain times in life
when we need the peace that comes from God. How
many of you have a major decision that you have
to make in the next couple of months. How many
of you have some minor decisions that are facing you
right now. Most all of us are caught in the
(12:27):
web of decision making all the time.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
How many of you have.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Ever secretly wished that there was an index in the
front of the Bible with your particular problem on it,
and it says, turn to page forty three. I've had
people come and ask me why God didn't write the
Bible that way.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Of course, if the Bible had been written with particular
situations so detailed, it would have been out of date
by the end of the first century, wouldn't it. I mean,
there are problems were do you take a donkey or
a horse to church? I mean, that doesn't really grab
me these days, you know. But what I want to
tell you is this that while you won't find necessarily
specific information for every single decision you have to make,
(13:07):
let me tell you with absolute confidence that most of
the major issues are settled, and settled very clearly in.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
The Word of God.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
God has spoken very clearly about most of the important issues.
And then He's given to us stories and principles and
illustrations that are timeless. And as we study those and
extract those principles and apply them to the events of
our life, we begin to see the pattern and we
sense that's God's direction.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
But having done all of that.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
And experienced all of that, and knowing all of that,
aren't there still times when you're stuck because you've got
these two things you've got to decide, and they both
seem good, and sometimes it's a difference between the better
and the best, or the best and the best, and
they both look like they're good options.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And what do you do well?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
There's a wonderful verse in the Book of Colossians Colossians
three point fifteen.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
It says, let the peace.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Of God rule in your heart, And the word for
rule in the text is the word umpire. Let the
peace of God call the balls and strikes in your heart.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Let it determine.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
You know, there's not a lot of difference between a
ball and a strike under most circumstances, just a little bit.
The empire has to stand back there and watch, and
he has to have everything in perspective, and you know,
he's human, so he's going to make ers. But the
umpire of your soul not going to make any errors.
And the Bible says, when you have two things and
you can't decide what to do, and they're not any
(14:44):
of them in violation of the clear principles of the
Word of God, and you don't have any information from
God that would help you to know, this is exactly
what you do. That there's this peace that comes from
God that helps you to do the right thing. Can
I get a witness you know what I'm talking You
tried to explain that to somebody, well, how do you
know you did the right thing?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, I just have peace from God.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And then they look at you like they think you're
a mystic or something, or maybe you're into the New Age.
You know, they don't know for sure what's going on.
When don and I came to this church, is the
hardest decision we've ever made. We don't ever want to
make one any harder than that. It was hard, and
we couldn't decide.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
You know, we loved the church where we were. We
had started it, we'd been there from the very beginning.
It was a growing, flourishing church and had a wonderful ministry.
And then there was all of this out here God
was doing, and we would talk about it, and we
would be one day over here and one day over here.
(15:44):
I remember one day we were on vacation. My wife
had already gotten peace from God. She knew what we're
supposed to do. It just hadn't gotten to me yet.
And we were on vacation and I was struggling so
with this, and Donna came in and she said, Honey,
I think if God himself came down here and told
you to go to California. You still wouldn't know what
to do. She was getting frustrated with me. I want
you to know, and I remember, and I said, I
(16:08):
tell you what I'm gonna do. I can't get peace
about this. So I'm going to get up one day
and I'm gonna say I'm staying in Fort Wayne. I'm
staying in Fort Wayne. We'll say it the first thing
in the morning, and I'm gonna just think that way
all that. I'm going to ask God to give me
peace about that. Well I did. I get up and
start thinking about all the things that were going on
to give me peace, and boy, it just didn't happen.
(16:29):
I just didn't have any peace. I knew that I
was on the verge of something new in my life.
So since that didn't work, I thought, well, I'll ask
God to give me peace about going to California. And
for the next two or three days I lived like that,
and God began to witness in my spirit, this is
what I want you to do. We always love to
(16:52):
tell this little story because God has wonderful ways of
giving peace. We were seated in the study in my
home one day when this was at the core of
having to be decided. And as we were talking about
this decision, it sounded like our kids were down in
the garage playing with the garage door because my office
was over the garage and it was just all messed
(17:14):
And I said to Donna, what are they doing downstairs?
And we found out later they weren't doing anything. We
had just been talking about one of our fears about
coming to California, that they have all these earthquakes out here.
Fort Wayne had an earthquake. Can you believe it right
at the very time we were talking about it. Now,
(17:35):
God doesn't always give his peace quite that clearly. I
want you to understand He's not going to send an earthquake.
But in our case, we got an earthquake. And I
remember saying to Donna, I believe God can send earthquakes
wherever he wants them. And I was back in the
Midwest and they had tornado watches all through the whole week.
I was so glad to come back or where it
only shakes. I'm just glad to be back in California.
(17:58):
The peace that comes from God, I don't know if
you know what that's like, friends, but that is a
wonderful gift. God gives God gives you his peace when
he's leading you and showing you what to do. So
what do we God, We got the peace with God.
That's when we become a Christian and the war is over.
Then we have the peace of God. When God gives
us the presence of His spirit in our life and
(18:20):
we know that he's living within us. And then you
have the peace that comes from God Colossians, when He
rules in your heart by his peace. Well, if that's
the truth, if that's what God has given to us,
then what could it possibly mean in this text when
it says blessed are the peace makers, for they shall
(18:43):
see God.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
How do we take.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
The peace that God has given to us and become
ourselves peace makers?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
How do we make peace?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Well, one of the most obvious things to me is
that if we're Christian people and God has called us
to the ministry of peacemaking, one of the things we
need to do is figure out how we can get
more and more men and women out of hostility with
God and into peace with God. Take men and women
who are estranged from the Father and bring them into
(19:16):
a relationship where they now are at.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Peace with the Father.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Every time you win someone to Jesus Christ, you are
a peacemaker. You're bringing somebody who is in hostility with
the Father together with the Father, bringing them together through reconciliation.
And Paul in the Corinthian Epistles calls us to that
very ministry that we're to reconcile those who are lost
and bring.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Them to Christ.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
That's what it means to be a peacemaker. The Bible says,
how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the
glad tidings of good things. God loves his people to
be peacemakers when they bring men to Christ, when they
break down the barriers that have grown up, and men
and women come to o Jesus Christ is their savior.
(20:02):
And then, more than certainly here the real focus of
this passage is not so much the issue of bringing
men into a relationship with God as it is bringing
estranged men back into a relationship with whom they have
become enemies, bringing men and men together. You know, let
(20:24):
me ask you the question, class, what is the opposite
of a peacemaker A troublemaker?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That isn't hard, is it?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
How many times do we have the option in our
life to take the high road or the low road,
to take the road of being a peacemaker or the
road of being a troublemaker. God has called us as
his children, and he is saying, blessed and happy and
fulfilled and satisfied is the person who functions in life
(20:54):
as a peacemaker who brings those who are estranged together.
I want to say a word today about all of
the people who are involved in counseling. One of the
great options, one of the great privileges these people have,
is to be a peacemaker. Oftentimes, you sit down in
an office with two people who haven't spoken to each
(21:15):
other in three weeks, and God gives you, by his
Holy Spirit the words to say, and the scriptures to
read and the prayers to pray. And somehow those barriers
which have grown up began to melt, and you see
those people who have been a strange come back together.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And if you've ever had the joy of.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
A counseling situation where people came in as enemies and
the end of the counseling session is hugging and.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Saying I'm sorry and crying and getting it.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Oh man, I'll tell you what blessed are the peacemakers.
There is any joy in all the world like that
being used of God to bring together those who have
fallen apart in their relationship. Blessed are the peacemakers, say
Pastor Jeremiah. Where are peacemakers needed today? Well, they're needed
(22:05):
at home, aren't they. You talk about a war zone,
A lot of homes are the warzone. You're not at peace.
There's a lot of hostility in our homes these days,
and that's sad. Some of it is always going to
be there. I've always loved what happened to Charlie shed
He wrote in his book one time that his wife
came home and they'd had an argument, and she put
(22:26):
a note on the refrigerator that said, dear Charlie, I
hate you love Martha.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
That's a good kind of hostility. You can live with that,
you know.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But then I heard about another guy who was asked
one time how he happened to have such a long
and successful marriage, and he said, well, they had worked
it out at the very beginning that if they ever
had a serious fight and she was mad, she'd clean
up the house, and if he was mad, he'd take
a long walk in the woods. And he said, you
can pretty much say that the success of our marriages
that I have largely led an outdoor life. There's a
(23:09):
lot of hostility in our homes, and we can joke
about it when it's not serious. But I tell you what,
when you see people that have stood in front of
an altar and confess their love for each other till
death do us part, and then halfway into that relationship
because of this or that, marriage starts to fall apart.
If you've got any grace at all in your heart,
(23:31):
if you've got the love of Jesus in your heart
at all, the one thing you want to do more
anything else is somehow God help me to fix this.
Don't let this happen to these people. Blessed are the
peacemakers at home.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What a message for today and even in these last days.
As a pastor, I have dealt with the necessity of
peacemakers at home. How often good marriages built with good
people get strung out because no one wants to take
the initiative to bring peace. Don't let that happen to
(24:09):
your marriage. And remember God loves peace and he will
help you. Well, we're going to take a break for
the weekend, and we'll be back on Monday with Part
two of Happy Hour the Healers, and we will conclude
our series next Friday on how to Be Happy according
to Jesus. Before we say our final goodbye today, let
me remind you that the Twelve Habits of Truly Happy
(24:31):
Christians is the resource for the month of February. You
don't want to miss getting this in your library. I
encourage you to get it. Send a gift of any
size and ask for your copy of the Twelve Habits.
Be sure to get the church on Sunday, watch us
on television if you can, and be joining us then
again on Monday as we continue our discussion of how
(24:52):
to be Happy according to Jesus.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church and Senior past doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point
is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn
where to find it, visit our website Davidjeremiah dot org,
slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dotorg, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
(25:18):
copy of David's book, Twelve Habits of truly happy Christians
with Jesus prescription for happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
To let us know how this ministry.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Blesses you, write to Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue how
to be happy according to Jesus on Turning Point with
Doctor David Jeremiah
Peace is taught a great deal in the Bible, how
to be at peace with each other, how to have
peace with God, and more than one kind of peace
at that. Today on Turning Point, doctor David Jeremiah considers
the various kinds of peace found in God's Word and
why living peacefully is a key to happiness. From how
(00:26):
to be Happy according to Jesus, here's David with his
message happy are the healers.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And the Bible tells us that we are to determine
to be like Jesus, and the Bible says he is
the Prince of Peace. So we're going to learn today
how to be a healer, how peace takes place in
the life of a believer, and what Jesus has to
say about that in his Beatitudes. The study guide for
(00:53):
this series is now available along with a CD package
that gives you all the audio teaching material. I tell
you that because one of the great things that has
happened in the study of the Bible across America has
been the use of the study guides. From turning Point.
We have prepared these study guides with you in mind
to help you interact with the material you hear on
(01:15):
the radio. So these study guides go along with all
the audio material, and many people now are using them
as small group curriculum. What they do is they get
a study guide for every person in their study group,
and then the leader gets the other material, this CD
package and whatever else may be available for that particular series.
(01:37):
He's the person who facilitates the Bible study and manages it.
Each of these study guides have questions for discussion, additional
places for you to look up the scripture and condensed
versions of each lesson that you hear on the radio
every day. There couldn't be a better way for you
to study the Bible in a small group than through
(01:59):
the study guides that we provide. There are many of
them with many subjects. Ask about that one you call
or right, But if you don't have a study guide
for this series, it's time to order it and have
it ready for you to review as we finish up
this series at the end.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Of the month.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now it's time for us to get back to our study.
Here on this Friday edition of Turning Point, Happy are
the healers.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Mankind has been searching for peace since the very beginning,
and the quest for peace among men has often been
illustrated by the architecture of society. For instance, if the
statue of liberty means anything, it means that we are
(02:44):
offering a gesture of peace to those who come to
the harbor and then who come to live within the
borders of our country. In Israel, there is a statue
which is called the Statue of Shalom, and it looks
out over the harbor of Haifa in that war torn
(03:05):
country as a message or at least a picture of
peace in the Middle East. In Tokyo, in front of
the Tokyo Station stands a robust statue with arms outstretched
toward heaven. And underneath the statue in Greek and Japanese
is the word agape love, a testimony to the desire
(03:29):
of the Japanese people for peace between their country and
their neighbors. In almost every part of the world there
is some symbolic representation of humanities quest after peace. Some
countries have gone further than statues. In a country that
(03:49):
I visited, Santa Domingo, there was a burden for world
peace in the heart of a man that was so
great that he caused himself to be nailed to a
cross as a sacrifice for peace in his country. The
man whose name is Patrice Tomao, planned to remain on
(04:10):
the cross for forty eight hours, but he had to
cut it short after twenty hours because of infection that's
set in his body.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
The newspaper in Santa.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Domingo the day after this event read as follows, Crucifixion
for peace falls short. The headline sort of summarizes everything
that has happened in our world in man's attempt to
bring peace to the war torn zones of our culture.
(04:43):
All of it seems to fall short. All of it
seems to fail. None of it ever seems to reach
its desired end. Of course, we know, if we have
studied the scriptures at all, that the problem is not
with nations. The problem is with nature, the nature of man.
The Bible says in James that the reason we war
(05:04):
is because we have a heart problem. The problems in
our heart starts within us. If you could somehow get
rid of selfishness in the heart of man, war would
go away. But wars come out of our own nature,
and they will always be a part of our history
until Jesus returns to set up his peaceful kingdom upon
(05:26):
this earth. There are many today who are searching for
peace individually, and they go about it through tranquilizers and
liquor and drugs. There's a sort of peace, I guess
that you could find in a mental institution, but who
wants that kind? There is a kind of peace that
comes from being brainwashed. Some people don't know what the
(05:47):
real issues are because they have totally been brainwashed from
the issues of life. Sometimes we equate peace with controlled panic.
But peace, according to God's word, is something that is
available to us, and it is something that God wants
us to have. It is quite evident to me that
(06:10):
before we can give it away and be peacemakers, we
have to be possessors of it ourselves. So I want
to talk with you for a few moments about what
the Bible says about peace, and just a very simple
outline so that you will understand what we're talking about here.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The word for.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Peace in the Greek language is the word erine. It
means to join together. It is a picture of two
opposing forces, once separated, now being reconciled.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
And according to.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
The Bible, there are three kinds of peace that we
can have. First of all, there is what the Bible
calls peace with God, and the emphasis is on the
little word with It comes as a surprise to some
today that when we are born into this world, we
are not born into this world at peace with God.
(07:04):
We are born into this world at war with God.
The Bible calls it the old nature, total depravity. And
while we don't hear much about that in our churches
these days, it is the truth. And every honest parent
knows it. They know that our children come screaming out
of the womb wanting their own way, and if you
(07:26):
don't feed them one night, you find out how bad
they want their own way. We are self centered individuals,
and self centeredness is a.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Very core of depravity.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
But the Bible says that it is possible for man
who is estranged from God to be at peace with God.
And the Book of Romans says it this way, that
we who are at enmity with God can be justified
by faith, and then we can have peace with God.
(08:00):
God in heaven looked down as the original peacemaker, and
noticed and knew that we were estranged from him, and
he sent his son into the world, and he went
to the cross, and there he hung between Heaven and
earth and paid the penalty for all of our sin.
And I've always thought the cross was a marvelous picture
of reconciliation, the very structure of it, with one part
(08:22):
of it reaching up toward Heaven from earth and celebrating
this part of our reconciliation. And there Jesus hung his
hands out on the crossbeam as if to say to
all mankind, welcome, you can all come, and he celebrated
for us our reconciliation, so that, as one writer has said, God,
(08:43):
Jesus Christ reached up one hand and took hold of
God the Father, and in his manhood reached down and
took hold another hand and reached down to man.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And he brought man and God together on the cross.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
And everybody who puts their trust in Jesus Christ now
is at peace with God. I've had the privilege over
the years of sharing the Gospel with many people individually,
and as much as I love to preach, there's something
about telling people about Jesus Christ one on one that's
very special, and you can't really equate it with any
other experience. And over and over again is in my
(09:15):
study or in their home We've prayed and they've invited
Christ to come into their life. It's almost a visible effect.
It's a sigh of relief. It's like, oh, the war's over.
I am at peace with God. I hope that today
you can say with assurance, there's one thing I know, Pastor,
I am at peace with God. But if we're honest
(09:39):
and we look out at our world, and especially at
the Christian world, we discover that while we may have
peace with God, there are a lot of Christian people
who don't seem to have the peace of God. There's
a difference between peace with God and the peace of God.
The peace of God is that which God gives to
us through his son Jesus Christ, as a gift that
(10:00):
we experience every day of our life. In John fourteen
twenty seven, Jesus said, speaking to his disciples, peace I
leave with you my peace.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I give unto you. Not as the world gives. Do
I give you. Let not your heart be troubled.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
And Jesus gave that to the disciples because he knew
they were going to be in a state of turmoil
very shortly through his death and his having been taken
away from them. And he said, in the midst of
these very confusing circumstances. I want you to know that
you can have a special kind of peace. That's a
gift from me. If you walk into the bookstores these days,
(10:37):
you discover that there apparently is something wrong, because most
of the titles in the bookstores these days are about
how to fix what's wrong in our Christian life. And
you wonder sometimes, if the Christian life really works, why
is so much always wrong? Why do we have to
keep writing these Christian self help books to get people
back up to where they should be in the first place.
(11:00):
The answer is we are missing our inheritance, and our
inheritance is the peace of God. I hope that if
you have lost the peace of God in your heart,
you will come back and find out what's wrong and
get it back. Psalm four to eight has a wonderful
testimony for all of us who are believers. And I'm
(11:22):
learning more and more about how precious this promise is.
I hope it's your promise. It goes like this, I
will both lay down in peace and sleep for you alone, Lord,
make me dwell in safety. You know, the real test
is can you lay down in peace and sleep? Can
you go out of the militarized zone where you live
your life every day, go back into the confines of
(11:43):
your home, and then in the peace of Jesus Christ,
pillow your head at night and say, you know, the
world's coming on glued out there. But the real thing is,
I have the peace of God in here, and it's
okay sleeping in the peace of Jesus Christ. There's a
third out of peace that I want to talk to
you about, which I've called the peace from God. The
(12:05):
peace with God is when we're saved. The peace of
God is when we begin to realize what our heritage
is in Christ. But there are certain times in life
when we need the peace that comes from God. How
many of you have a major decision that you have
to make in the next couple of months. How many
of you have some minor decisions that are facing you
right now. Most all of us are caught in the
(12:27):
web of decision making all the time.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
How many of you have.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Ever secretly wished that there was an index in the
front of the Bible with your particular problem on it,
and it says, turn to page forty three. I've had
people come and ask me why God didn't write the
Bible that way.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Of course, if the Bible had been written with particular
situations so detailed, it would have been out of date
by the end of the first century, wouldn't it. I mean,
there are problems were do you take a donkey or
a horse to church? I mean, that doesn't really grab
me these days, you know. But what I want to
tell you is this that while you won't find necessarily
specific information for every single decision you have to make,
(13:07):
let me tell you with absolute confidence that most of
the major issues are settled, and settled very clearly in.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
The Word of God.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
God has spoken very clearly about most of the important issues.
And then He's given to us stories and principles and
illustrations that are timeless. And as we study those and
extract those principles and apply them to the events of
our life, we begin to see the pattern and we
sense that's God's direction.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
But having done all of that.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
And experienced all of that, and knowing all of that,
aren't there still times when you're stuck because you've got
these two things you've got to decide, and they both
seem good, and sometimes it's a difference between the better
and the best, or the best and the best, and
they both look like they're good options.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And what do you do well?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
There's a wonderful verse in the Book of Colossians Colossians
three point fifteen.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
It says, let the peace.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Of God rule in your heart, And the word for
rule in the text is the word umpire. Let the
peace of God call the balls and strikes in your heart.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Let it determine.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
You know, there's not a lot of difference between a
ball and a strike under most circumstances, just a little bit.
The empire has to stand back there and watch, and
he has to have everything in perspective, and you know,
he's human, so he's going to make ers. But the
umpire of your soul not going to make any errors.
And the Bible says, when you have two things and
you can't decide what to do, and they're not any
(14:44):
of them in violation of the clear principles of the
Word of God, and you don't have any information from
God that would help you to know, this is exactly
what you do. That there's this peace that comes from
God that helps you to do the right thing. Can
I get a witness you know what I'm talking You
tried to explain that to somebody, well, how do you
know you did the right thing?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, I just have peace from God.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And then they look at you like they think you're
a mystic or something, or maybe you're into the New Age.
You know, they don't know for sure what's going on.
When don and I came to this church, is the
hardest decision we've ever made. We don't ever want to
make one any harder than that. It was hard, and
we couldn't decide.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
You know, we loved the church where we were. We
had started it, we'd been there from the very beginning.
It was a growing, flourishing church and had a wonderful ministry.
And then there was all of this out here God
was doing, and we would talk about it, and we
would be one day over here and one day over here.
(15:44):
I remember one day we were on vacation. My wife
had already gotten peace from God. She knew what we're
supposed to do. It just hadn't gotten to me yet.
And we were on vacation and I was struggling so
with this, and Donna came in and she said, Honey,
I think if God himself came down here and told
you to go to California. You still wouldn't know what
to do. She was getting frustrated with me. I want
you to know, and I remember, and I said, I
(16:08):
tell you what I'm gonna do. I can't get peace
about this. So I'm going to get up one day
and I'm gonna say I'm staying in Fort Wayne. I'm
staying in Fort Wayne. We'll say it the first thing
in the morning, and I'm gonna just think that way
all that. I'm going to ask God to give me
peace about that. Well I did. I get up and
start thinking about all the things that were going on
to give me peace, and boy, it just didn't happen.
(16:29):
I just didn't have any peace. I knew that I
was on the verge of something new in my life.
So since that didn't work, I thought, well, I'll ask
God to give me peace about going to California. And
for the next two or three days I lived like that,
and God began to witness in my spirit, this is
what I want you to do. We always love to
(16:52):
tell this little story because God has wonderful ways of
giving peace. We were seated in the study in my
home one day when this was at the core of
having to be decided. And as we were talking about
this decision, it sounded like our kids were down in
the garage playing with the garage door because my office
was over the garage and it was just all messed
(17:14):
And I said to Donna, what are they doing downstairs?
And we found out later they weren't doing anything. We
had just been talking about one of our fears about
coming to California, that they have all these earthquakes out here.
Fort Wayne had an earthquake. Can you believe it right
at the very time we were talking about it. Now,
(17:35):
God doesn't always give his peace quite that clearly. I
want you to understand He's not going to send an earthquake.
But in our case, we got an earthquake. And I
remember saying to Donna, I believe God can send earthquakes
wherever he wants them. And I was back in the
Midwest and they had tornado watches all through the whole week.
I was so glad to come back or where it
only shakes. I'm just glad to be back in California.
(17:58):
The peace that comes from God, I don't know if
you know what that's like, friends, but that is a
wonderful gift. God gives God gives you his peace when
he's leading you and showing you what to do. So
what do we God, We got the peace with God.
That's when we become a Christian and the war is over.
Then we have the peace of God. When God gives
us the presence of His spirit in our life and
(18:20):
we know that he's living within us. And then you
have the peace that comes from God Colossians, when He
rules in your heart by his peace. Well, if that's
the truth, if that's what God has given to us,
then what could it possibly mean in this text when
it says blessed are the peace makers, for they shall
(18:43):
see God.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
How do we take.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
The peace that God has given to us and become
ourselves peace makers?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
How do we make peace?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Well, one of the most obvious things to me is
that if we're Christian people and God has called us
to the ministry of peacemaking, one of the things we
need to do is figure out how we can get
more and more men and women out of hostility with
God and into peace with God. Take men and women
who are estranged from the Father and bring them into
(19:16):
a relationship where they now are at.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Peace with the Father.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Every time you win someone to Jesus Christ, you are
a peacemaker. You're bringing somebody who is in hostility with
the Father together with the Father, bringing them together through reconciliation.
And Paul in the Corinthian Epistles calls us to that
very ministry that we're to reconcile those who are lost
and bring.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Them to Christ.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
That's what it means to be a peacemaker. The Bible says,
how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the
glad tidings of good things. God loves his people to
be peacemakers when they bring men to Christ, when they
break down the barriers that have grown up, and men
and women come to o Jesus Christ is their savior.
(20:02):
And then, more than certainly here the real focus of
this passage is not so much the issue of bringing
men into a relationship with God as it is bringing
estranged men back into a relationship with whom they have
become enemies, bringing men and men together. You know, let
(20:24):
me ask you the question, class, what is the opposite
of a peacemaker A troublemaker?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That isn't hard, is it?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
How many times do we have the option in our
life to take the high road or the low road,
to take the road of being a peacemaker or the
road of being a troublemaker. God has called us as
his children, and he is saying, blessed and happy and
fulfilled and satisfied is the person who functions in life
(20:54):
as a peacemaker who brings those who are estranged together.
I want to say a word today about all of
the people who are involved in counseling. One of the
great options, one of the great privileges these people have,
is to be a peacemaker. Oftentimes, you sit down in
an office with two people who haven't spoken to each
(21:15):
other in three weeks, and God gives you, by his
Holy Spirit the words to say, and the scriptures to
read and the prayers to pray. And somehow those barriers
which have grown up began to melt, and you see
those people who have been a strange come back together.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And if you've ever had the joy of.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
A counseling situation where people came in as enemies and
the end of the counseling session is hugging and.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Saying I'm sorry and crying and getting it.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Oh man, I'll tell you what blessed are the peacemakers.
There is any joy in all the world like that
being used of God to bring together those who have
fallen apart in their relationship. Blessed are the peacemakers, say
Pastor Jeremiah. Where are peacemakers needed today? Well, they're needed
(22:05):
at home, aren't they. You talk about a war zone,
A lot of homes are the warzone. You're not at peace.
There's a lot of hostility in our homes these days,
and that's sad. Some of it is always going to
be there. I've always loved what happened to Charlie shed
He wrote in his book one time that his wife
came home and they'd had an argument, and she put
(22:26):
a note on the refrigerator that said, dear Charlie, I
hate you love Martha.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
That's a good kind of hostility. You can live with that,
you know.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But then I heard about another guy who was asked
one time how he happened to have such a long
and successful marriage, and he said, well, they had worked
it out at the very beginning that if they ever
had a serious fight and she was mad, she'd clean
up the house, and if he was mad, he'd take
a long walk in the woods. And he said, you
can pretty much say that the success of our marriages
that I have largely led an outdoor life. There's a
(23:09):
lot of hostility in our homes, and we can joke
about it when it's not serious. But I tell you what,
when you see people that have stood in front of
an altar and confess their love for each other till
death do us part, and then halfway into that relationship
because of this or that, marriage starts to fall apart.
If you've got any grace at all in your heart,
(23:31):
if you've got the love of Jesus in your heart
at all, the one thing you want to do more
anything else is somehow God help me to fix this.
Don't let this happen to these people. Blessed are the
peacemakers at home.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What a message for today and even in these last days.
As a pastor, I have dealt with the necessity of
peacemakers at home. How often good marriages built with good
people get strung out because no one wants to take
the initiative to bring peace. Don't let that happen to
(24:09):
your marriage. And remember God loves peace and he will
help you. Well, we're going to take a break for
the weekend, and we'll be back on Monday with Part
two of Happy Hour the Healers, and we will conclude
our series next Friday on how to Be Happy according
to Jesus. Before we say our final goodbye today, let
me remind you that the Twelve Habits of Truly Happy
(24:31):
Christians is the resource for the month of February. You
don't want to miss getting this in your library. I
encourage you to get it. Send a gift of any
size and ask for your copy of the Twelve Habits.
Be sure to get the church on Sunday, watch us
on television if you can, and be joining us then
again on Monday as we continue our discussion of how
(24:52):
to be Happy according to Jesus.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church and Senior past doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point
is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn
where to find it, visit our website Davidjeremiah dot org,
slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dotorg, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
(25:18):
copy of David's book, Twelve Habits of truly happy Christians
with Jesus prescription for happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
To let us know how this ministry.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Blesses you, write to Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue how
to be happy according to Jesus on Turning Point with
Doctor David Jeremiah
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